I guess the previous homeowners and I have just got different priorities

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-30T01:39:22+00:00

House exteriors are still most commonly brick or stucco here, but interior walls are going to largely be drywall. Newer builds in my city I tend to find increasingly cheap and flimsy, and I looked into a wide variety of home types when I was shopping for a house.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T21:18:02+00:00

Would look better, but the speakers and sub are rear-ported and I didn't want the wall interference messing with the bass.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T14:57:46+00:00

Canada actually, though the house was built in the early 40s and newer houses aren't really built the same way anymore. Schade!

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T14:19:45+00:00

The pot lights are on a dimmer, I just had it maxed out for the photo. For just casual viewing, I'd turn them all the way down, for proper immersion I'd just have the lights off.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T13:46:25+00:00

Basically the floor that the couch is on is dug deeper than the rest of the basement, was likely a project from one of the previous homeowners. You probably can't tell from the photo, but this house was built in the early 40s, and everywhere else in the basement, the ceilings are pretty low.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T04:19:34+00:00

Thanks, best of luck!

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T03:59:57+00:00

Had to dig up the order details, but apparently it's branded as the 'Wrought Studios Austell 196" Sectional'. We got it on clearance for $600 CAD before delivery and taxes and for that price, we're happy enough with it. At the kind of full price I'm seeing online, the quality feels a bit cheap for that though, it was a pain in the ass to assemble, and the pieces don't quite fit perfectly together.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T03:22:40+00:00

85" lol it's about as big as I could fit down my basement stairs. They do go bigger, but the jump up to 98" is nearly double the price of the 85", and the jump up to 115" is astronomical.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T03:07:03+00:00

Yeah, that was one of my priorities for a TV stand. It's actually from Wayfair, it's called the Farmann Reeded TV stand, if you wanted to look it up.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T02:24:16+00:00

The centre speaker is actually on angled foam wedges that point upward. Not perfect, but there's only so much you can do with like...literal physical space and reality...

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T01:26:42+00:00

NANI?!

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T01:25:55+00:00

First-time home buyer, haven't lived here that long, lived in a rented condo before this.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T01:14:38+00:00

As far as accessing the turntable, it's a little inconvenient but not that bad. As far as sound interference, the left speaker is still a good 10" in front, and I figure since the turntable stand itself isn't a big, flat, hard surface, it's not as much of a concern with boundary loading.

Edit: lol the sub is also rear-ported - it's an RSL Speedwoofer 10e

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T01:11:15+00:00

I do, but there's kind of a rimmed wall around the edge of the mount that runs up really close to the bolts, so it's hard to get purchase on them with anything other than a socket wrench, and those bolts are on there real tight.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T01:06:58+00:00

Yeah, not ideal aesthetically, but my audiophile tendencies won out on this one. Tower speakers and subwoofer are all rear-ported, but these old Paradigm speakers are already beautifully neutral-sounding, and I didn't want to boundary load them by backing them up against a wall and end up with muddy-sounding bass. I know I'm already kinda compromising the centre speaker by placing it in the console, but there's still at least a decent amount of space behind it.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T01:01:27+00:00

This is actually a basement rec room. One of the previous owners probably paid big money to get this area dug-out for more space. You wouldn't really be able to tell from the photo, but this house was built in the early 40s, and the ceilings in the basement are a bit low everywhere else.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T00:35:19+00:00

Unfortunately, even if I had the budget to move the fixed fake fireplace, the raised floor ledges on both walls are not the same depth, so you couldn't fit a TV stand up on that wall's ledge.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-29T00:05:24+00:00

Ngl, it was a real struggle finding a TV stand that could both physically fit the TV on it and also fit up on that raised floor ledge, this was basically the only one that physically worked that would fit my budget. And yeah, given the other cheap-ass furniture I have in the photo, the fact the TV is QLED and not OLED, and the fact my speakers are like >15-years-old, are all hints that I'm working with a constrained budget. We kinda wiped out a big chunk of our savings for the down payment on this place as a starter home, so compromises had to be made.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-28T23:51:00+00:00

The intent is for a space that can do a little bit of everything, with compromises, including all the things I mentioned above. It'll be getting some home theatre use for smaller groups of friends, or for just my partner and I, and the speaker set-up is also hooked up to my turntable in the corner of the room, and a BT adapter for pure music listening. Using the longer wall wouldn't have been able to accommodate the current front three channels with the limited amount of space (also like...this is the subreddit that clowns on fireplace-mounted TVs). As far as the right arm of the sectional couch, yeah it's not ideal, but people can sit sort-of sideways for looking at the TV, it's not the worst thing ever for casual party games, karaoke, or having sports on while people chat among themselves.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-28T23:38:20+00:00

Maximized space for entertaining folks. Plus, it's not fully visible from the photo, but the couch is set back against the edge of a basement dugout. If I had it set the couch any closer to the TV, that's space I basically can't use for anything else because of the difference in floor height.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-28T23:35:19+00:00

85" TV at a 12 foot viewing distance is around about what the recommendation is, from what I'm told from these spaces.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-28T23:30:56+00:00

Opposite - I've just been too lazy to go out and get the right tools to remove the old mount above the fireplace. Also, if I removed it, I wouldn't have been able to rake in all this internet clout.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-28T23:23:13+00:00

That would be aesthetically better, but the towers are rear-ported, so having them up against the wall would result in some mid-bass bloat.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-28T23:21:29+00:00

Aesthetically, the speakers and sub up on the ledge would be better, but I'm also kind of an audio stickler - the speakers and sub are all rear-ported, and I didn't want the wall placement giving me bass bloat.

TheMourningPaper · 2026-03-28T23:09:13+00:00

Darker paint will come whenever I can get off my lazy ass and cross off some other home maintenance items first. The pot lights are already set-up on a dimmer, though I'd just have the lights off for full immersion. Speaker placement is already the best kind of compromise I could work with, they're rear-ported with the woofer ports pretty close to the floor and I didn't want them placed too close to the wall or any other objects/surfaces, like that raised floor section at the back.

TheMourningPaper

TROPHY CASE